Back in the Saddle

So I've been uber busy with school this term, and fortunately, I'm about 99.99% done until the summer term. With baby #4 in route, I've decided to take the semester off this spring to avoid being caught up school stuff when the baby comes.

That being said, I took advantage of great forecasted winds today and got out in the buggy for the first time in about 2 months. It's been far too long, but I also got some REAL quality time with the 8.6m RII in the buggy seat, especially since I repaired the bridle. For ease of use, since my VTT buggy rack was damaged when a dude rear ended me (thankfully no buggy was on the rack), I put my downtube and front end back on the PL Frankenbuggy, so I could just pull the back axle off the buggy and throw it in the back of my kitemobile.

I've really not experienced REAL wind with the 8.6m, but I had him up and on the harness and got hit with a gust sending me rocketing across the relatively small field at near warp speed...EEGAD MAN! Maybe it's time for a smaller kite eh?!?! So I pulled out the 5.5m RII and realized I'd been had by the Sucka Wind... I couldn't get anywhere with the 5.5m so back up with the 8.6m... Well that lasted a little while until the wind finally showed up, so back away with the 8.6m and up with the 5.5m (I wasted a lot of time switching back and forth between kite sizes today ).

The wind was really crankin' by this point and I was tempted to pull out the 4m Core, but I had limited time so I decided to just be careful and stick it out with the 5.5m. I ended up having some great (an very fast) runs back and forth across that field. Man those RII's are fast. I came really close to having some OBE's, and had one somewhat intentional OBE. I was able to try a couple of upwind turns successfully and at my higher speeds I think I successfully did a few suicide JIBES. (Thanks BeamerBob).

All in all, it was a great day getting back in the saddle.